The Watchtower deliberately misleads the readers to the wrong conclusion that Philip Schaff, believes the origin of trinity is from the "pagan doctrines" of Plato! Schaff openly states in the that trinity has its origin in the scripture.

Schaff, Philip:

1. History of the Christian Church. 2. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia

How the quote appears in "Should you believe in the Trinity", Watchtower, JW's booklet.

"

The doctrines of the Logos and the Trinity received their shape from Greek Fathers, who ... were much influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Platonic philosophy ... That errors and corruptions crept into the Church from this source can not be denied."(The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, edited by Samuel Macauley Jackson, 1957, Vol. IX, p. 91, quoted in, Should you believe the Trinity?, Watchtower publication)

Our initial comment

For Jehovah's Witnesses to quote Philip Schaff and try to make him say that Trinity is borrowed from Platonism is utterly preposterous and totally deceptive as you will see.

First the quote, when you read the article, is not saying that Trinity is an error! The errors Schaff refer to are not trinity! Since Schaff is a trinitarian who believes the doctrine is based upon the Bible, it should be obvious that he is referring to something else that he considers "error and corruption".

We begin with the three quotes below to prove the point that JW's are decievers every way they turn!

What they fail to tell the same article also says:

"The Socinian and rationalistic opinion, that the

church doctrine of the Trinity sprang from Platonism and Neo-Platonism is therefore radically false. The Indian Trimurti, altogether pantheistic in spirit, is still further from the Christian Trinity" (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church New York: Scribner's, 1924, vol. 2, p. 566)

"The Ontological Doctrine:

There is no reason to seek for sources or types of the doctrine of the Trinity outside of Christianity or of the Bible, though in the eighteenth century efforts were made to derive the Christian dogma from Plato, and later from Brahmanism and Parseeism, or, later still, from a Babylonian triad. Even were the resemblance between the Christian Trinity and the pagan triads far greater than it is, there could be no serious question of borrowing. The development, of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is historically clear, and its motives are equally well known, being almost exclusively due to Christological speculation." (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Trinity, Doctrine of the; p18)

"The Biblical Doctrine: Early dogmaticians were of the opinion that so essential a doctrine as that of the Trinity could not have been unknown to the men of the Old Testament.

However, no modem theologian who clearly distinguishes between the degrees of revelation in the Old and New Testaments can longer maintain such a view. Only an inaccurate exegesis which overlooks the more immediate grounds of interpretation can see references to the Trinity in the plural form of the divine name Elohim, the use of the plural in Gen. i. 26, or such liturgical phrases of three members as the Aaronic blessing of Num. vi. 24-26 and the Trisagion (q.v.) of Isa. vi. 3. On the other hand, the development of Christology and, later, of the doctrine of the Trinity has undoubtedly been influenced by certain passages of the Old Testament..." (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Trinity, Doctrine of the; p18)

"The doctrine of the divine Trinity is the summarized statement of the historical revelation of redemption for the Christian consciousness of God.

It affirms that God is not only the ruler of the universe, but the Father of Christ, in whom he is perfectly revealed, and the source of a holy and blessed life which transforms nature and is realized in the Church. It constitutes the distinctive characteristic of Christianity as contrasted with Judaism and paganism and is a modification of Christian monotheism." (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Trinity, Doctrine of the; p18)

"Only thus much is true, that the Hellenistic philosophy operated from without, as a stimulating force, upon the form of the whole patristic theology, the doctrines of the Logos and the Trinity among the rest; and that the deeper minds of heathen antiquity showed a presentiment of a threefold distinction in the divine essence; but only a remote and vague presentiment which, like all the deeper instincts of the heathen mind, serves to strengthen Christian truth.

Far clearer and more fruitful suggestions presented themselves in the Old Testament" (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church New York: Scribner's, 1924, vol. 2, p. 566)

The unity of God was already immovably fixed by the Old Testament as a fundamental article of revealed religion in opposition to all forms of idolatry.

But the New Testament and the Christian consciousness as firmly demanded faith in the divinity of the Son, who effected redemption, and of the Holy Spirit, who founded the church and dwells in believers; and these apparently contradictory interests could be reconciled only in the form of the Trinity, that is, by distinguishing in the one and indivisible essence of God three hypostases or persons; at the same time allowing for the insufficiency of all human conceptions and words to describe such as unfathomable mystery. (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church New York: Scribner's, 1924, vol. 2, p. 566)

Deception Exposed:

The Watchtower deliberately misleads the readers to the wrong conclusion that Philip Schaff, believes the origin of trinity is from the "pagan doctrines" of Plato! Schaff openly states in the that trinity has its origin in the scripture.

Watchtower Deception Further exposed:

How the Watchtower quoted the source

What they left out to deliberately misrepresent the source and deceive you:

"

The doctrines of the Logos and the Trinity received their shape from Greek Fathers, who ... were much influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Platonic philosophy ... That errors and corruptions crept into the Church from this source can not be denied."(The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, edited by Samuel Macauley Jackson, 1957, Vol. IX, p. 91, quoted in, Should you believe the Trinity?, Watchtower publication)

"

And many of the early Christians, in turn, found peculiar attractions in the doctrines of Plato, and employed them as weapons for the defense and extension of Christianity, or cast the truths of Christianity in a Platonic mold.The doctrines of the Logos and the Trinity received their shape from Greek Fathers, who, if not trained in the schools, were much influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Platonic philosophy, particularly in its Jewish-Alexandrian form. That errors and corruptions crept into the Church from this source can not be denied." (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Platonism and Christianity, p91)

What they left out to deliberately misrepresent the source and deceive you:

What they fail to tell the same article also says:

The Platonic dogmas," says Justin Martyr, " are not foreign to Christianity.

If we Christians say that all things were created and ordered by God, we seem to enounce a doctrine of Plato; and, between our view of the being of God and his, the article appears to make the only difference " (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Platonism And Christianity, p 88)

The Fathers of the early Church sought to explain the striking resemblance between the doctrines of Plato and those of Christianity

, principally by the acquaintance, which, as they supposed, that philosopher had with learned Jews and with the Jewish Scriptures during his sojourn in Egypt, but partly, also, by the universal light of a divine revelation through the " Logos," which, in and through human reason, " lighteth every man that cometh into the world," and which illumined especially such sincere and humble seekers after truth as Socrates and Plato before the incarnation of the Eternal Word in the person of Jesus Christ. Passages which bear a striking resemblance to the Christian Scriptures in their picturesque, parabolic, and axiomatic style, and still more in the lofty moral, religious, and almost Christian sentiments which they express, are scattered thickly all through the dialogues (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Platonism And Christianity, p 88)

Platonism, as well as Christianity, says, Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, only for a season; but the things which are not seen are eternal

(cf. II Cor. iv. 18). The philosophy of Plato is eminently theistic. God," he says, in his " Republic " (716 A), " is (literally, holds) the beginning, middle, and end of all things. He is the supreme mind or reason, the efficient cause of all things, eternal, un-changeable, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-pervading, and all-controlling, just, holy, wise, and good, the absolutely perfect, the beginning of all truth, the fountain of all law and justice, the source of all order and beauty, and especially the cause of all good (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Platonism And Christianity, p 88)

Our comment

As you can see, the watchtower deliberately left out the sentence, "

And many of the early Christians, in turn, found peculiar attractions in the doctrines of Plato, and employed them as weapons for the defense and extension of Christianity, or cast the truths of Christianity in a Platonic mold." before their quote because it would refute and prevent their misrepresentation!

What Schaff is saying, is that there are many similarities between Platonism and Christianity, both trinitarians and JW's alike!

Schaff's point is not that early Christians borrowed their doctrine from Plato, but that they employed Platonic language to convey Christian truths for illustrative purposes. JW's do the same today when they say that the Holy Spirit is like the "electricity" of God. Early Christians had no concept of electricity as a force. Does this prove that the Watchtower false doctrine that denies the Holy Spirit is a person was borrowed from Benjamin Franklin who discovered it? Is Watchtower theology borrowed from "Franklintonic philosophy"?

Deception Exposed:

JW's mislead the reader into thinking that the similarities between Platonism and Christianity, but no similarities between Platonism and the Watchtower religion.

JW's deceive the reader into thinking that JW's have no similarities to explain!

For example, "

If we Christians (or JW's) say that all things were created and ordered by God, we seem to enounce a doctrine of Plato". According the Jw logic, the watchtower borrowed the doctrine from Plato!

Full Texts:

The peculiarity of the Platonic philosophy," says Hegel, in his " History of Philosophy " (vol. ii.), " is precisely this direction toward the supersensuous world, it seeks the elevation of conscious ness into the realm of spirit. The Christian religion also has set up this high principle, that the internal spiritual essence of man is his true essence, and has made it the universal Estimate principle." Some of the early Fathers recognized a Christian element in Plato, and ascribed to him a kind of propsedeutic office and relation toward Christianity. Clement of Alexandria calls philosophy " a sort of preliminary discipline for those who lived before the coming of Christ," and adds, " Perhaps we may say it was given to the Greeks with this special object; for philosophy was to the Greeks what the law was to the Jews, a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ (cf. Strom., I., v.xx.; Eng. transl., ANF, ii. 305324).f "

The Platonic dogmas," says Justin Martyr, " are not foreign to Christianity. If we Christians say that all things were created and ordered by God, we seem to enounce a doctrine of Plato; and, between our view of the being of God and his, the article appears to make the only difference " (cf. 11 Apol., xiii.). "Justin" (says Ackermann, Das Christliche im Plato, chap. i., Ham burg, 1835; Eng. transl., The Christian Element in Plato, Edinburgh, 1861), " Justin was, as he him self relates, an enthusiastic admirer of Plato before he found in the Gospel that full satisfaction which he had sought earnestly, but in vain, in philosophy. And, though the Gospel stood infinitely higher in his view than the Platonic philosophy, yet he regarded the latter as a preliminary stage to the former. And in the same way did other apologetic writers express themselves concerning Plato and his philosophy, especially Athenagoras, the most spirited, and philosophically most important of them all, whose ' Apology ' is one of the most admirable works of Christian antiquity." The Fathers of the early Church sought to explain the striking resemblance between the doctrines of Plato and those of Christianity, principally by the acquaintance, which, as they supposed, that philosopher had with learned Jews and with the Jewish Scriptures during his sojourn in Egypt, but partly, also, by the universal light of a divine revelation through the " Logos," which, in and through human reason, " lighteth every man that cometh into the world," and which illumined especially such sincere and humble seekers after truth as Socrates and Plato before the incarnation of the Eternal Word in the person of Jesus Christ. Passages which bear a striking resemblance to the Christian Scriptures in their picturesque, parabolic, and axiomatic style, and still more in the lofty moral, religious, and almost Christian sentiments which they express, are scattered thickly all through the dialogues, even those that treat of physical, political, and philosophical subjects; and they are as characteristic of Plato as is the inimitably graceful dialogue in which they are clothed. A good selection of such passages may be seen in the introductory chapters of Ackermann's work (ut sup.). A still more copious and striking collection might be made. Perhaps the most obvious and striking feature of the Platonic philosophy is that it is preeminently spiritual. Hegel speaks of "this direction toward the supersensuous world," this " elevation of consciousness into the realm of Philosophy spirit," as " the peculiarity of the Platonic philosophy." There is no doctrine on which Plato more frequently or more strenuously insists than this, that soul is not only superior to body, but prior to it in order of time, and that not merely as it exists in the being of God, but in every order of existence. The soul of the world existed first, and then it was clothed with a material body. The souls which animate the sun, moon, and stars, existed before the bodies which they inhabit (Timaus). The preexistence of human souls is one of the arguments on which he relies to prove their immortality (Phado, 7376). Among the other arguments by which he demonstrates the immortality of the soul and its exalted dignity are these: that the soul leads and rules the body, and therein resembles the immortal gods (ib. 80); that the soul is capable of apprehending eternal and immutable ideas, and communing with things unseen and eternal, and so must partake of their nature (ib. 79); that, as consciousness is single and simple, so the soul itself is uncompounded, and hence incapable of dissolution (ib. 78); that soul, being everywhere the cause and source of life, and every way diametrically opposite to death, can not be conceived as dying, any more than fire can be conceived as becoming cold (ib. 102107); that soul, being self-moved, and the source of all life and motion, can never cease to live and move (PhoDdrus, 245); that diseases of the body do not reach to the soul; and vice, which is a disease of the soul, corrupts its moral quality, but has no power or tendency to destroy its essence (" Republic," 610), etc. Spiritual entities are the only real existences: material things are perpetually changing, and flowing into and out of existence. God is: the world be comes, and passes away. The soul is: the body is ever changing, as a garment. Soul or ideas, which are spiritual entities, are the only true causes; God being the first cause why every thing is, and ideas being the secondary causes why things are such as they are (Phoedo, 100-101). Mind and will are the real cause of all motion and action in the world, just as truly as of all human motion and action. According to the striking illustration in the Phoedo (98, 99), the cause of Socrates awaiting death in the prison, instead of making his escape as his friends urged him to do, was that he chose to do so from a sense of duty; and, if he had chosen to run away, his bones and muscles would have been only the means or instruments of the flight of which his mind and will would have been the cause. And just so it is in all the phenomena of nature, in all the motions and changes of the material cosmos. And life in the highest sense, what we call spiritual and eternal life, all that deserves the name of life, is in and of and from the soul, which matter only contaminates and clouds, and the body only clogs and entombs (Gargias, 492, 493). Platonism, as well as Christianity, says, Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, only for a season; but the things which are not seen are eternal (cf. II Cor. iv. 18). The philosophy of Plato is eminently theistic. God," he says, in his " Republic " (716 A), " is (literally, holds) the beginning, middle, and end of all things. He is the supreme mind or reason, the efficient cause of all things, eternal, un-changeable, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-pervading, and all-controlling, just, holy, wise, and good, the absolutely perfect, the beginning of all truth, the fountain of all law and justice, the source of all order and beauty, and especially the cause of all good (Philebus, Phado, Timw", " Republic," and Laws," passim). God represents, he impersonates, he is the true, the beautiful, but, above all, the good. Just how Plato conceived these " ideas " to be related to the divine mind is disputed. In discussing the good, sometimes it is difficult to determine whether he means by it an idea, an attribute, a principle, a power, or a personal God. But he leaves no doubt as to his actual belief in the divine personality. God is the reason (the intelligence, Phodo, 97 Q and the good (" Republic," 508 Q; but he is also the artificer, the maker, the Father, the supreme ruler, who begets, disposes, and orders all (cf. Timaw, with places just cited). He is Theos and Ho Theos (Phado, 106 D, and often elsewhere). Plato often speaks also of gods in the plural; but to him, as to all the best minds of antiquity, the inferior deities are the children, the servants, the ministers, the angels, of the supreme God (Timaw, 41). Unity is an essential element of perfection. There is but one highest and best the Most High, the Supreme Good, God in the true and proper sense is one. The Supreme God only is eternal, he only hath immortality in himself. The immortality of the inferior deities is derived, imparted to them by their Father and the Father of all, and is dependent on his will (Timcna, 41). God made the world by introducing order and beauty into chaotic matter, and putting into it a living, moving, intelligent soul; then the inferior deities made man under his direction, and in substantially the same way. God made the world because he is good, and because, free from all envy or jealousy, he wished everything to be as much like himself as the creature can be like the creator (Timceus, 30 A). Therefore he made the world good, and when he saw it he was delighted (ib. 37 C; cf. Gen. i. 31). God is the author of all good, and of good only, not of evil. " Every good gift cometh down from the Father of the celestial luminaries "; " for it is morally impossible for the best being to do any thing else than the best " (Timwus, 30 A; cf. Jas. i. 17). God exercises a providential care over the world as a whole, and over every part (chiefly, however, through the inferior deities who thus fulfil the office of angels, " Laws," 905 B906), and makes all things, the least as well as the greatest, work f or good to the righteous and those who love God, and are loved by him (Phado, 62; " Republic," 613). (New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Platonism And Christianity, p 88)